Technical Program Manager, Core Network & WAN Infrastructure

Technical Program Manager, Core Network & WAN Infrastructure

Technical Program Management - San Francisco

About the Role

You will join an engineer-first TPM team and own end-to-end delivery of OpenAI’s WAN Infrastructure, partnering with engineers to bring clusters online across external providers and partners.

This is a hands‑on infrastructure execution role. You’ll run a broad, parallel portfolio spanning hardware, cabling, optics, cloud cross‑connects, and port maps—driving execution, risk management, and crisp alignment from working teams through leadership to deliver production‑ready capacity at scale.

The right person combines enough technical depth to reason through physical and logical network readiness with the program discipline and ownership to keep complex builds moving and improve how we scale.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance.

In this role, you will:

• Lead end-to-end delivery of OpenAI’s WAN build-out and large-scale GPU clusters across an external partner ecosystem
• Drive multi‑threaded network infrastructure bring‑up programs across physical and logical readiness—owning plans, dependencies, and critical paths
• Partner with engineering to turn up large‑scale network capacity, reducing bring‑up time for our largest GPU supercomputers by working across optics, circuits
• Identify recurring bottlenecks in WAN and network infrastructure build-out, then drive fixes that make future builds faster, more predictable, and less dependent on tribal knowledge
• Coordinate cross‑functional readiness (security, finance, operations, product/research stakeholders) to ship production‑ready compute
• Manage integration and handoffs across teams and partners—ensuring consistent execution, clear communication, and fast issue resolution
• Identify bottlenecks and systemic gaps, then drive durable fixes across tooling, process, and partner interfaces
• Provide crisp executive visibility on progress, tradeoffs, and risks across a large portfolio of concurrent programs

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• Possess a degree in a hard science, or have a demonstrated track record of engineering expertise.
• Have 5+ years of experience in program management for major projects including capital projects or hyperscaler infrastructure deployment.
• Are relentlessly resourceful and thrive in ambiguous, fast‑paced environments.
• Demonstrate the ability to serve as the go‑to person solely responsible for driving and delivering complex projects.
• Strong technical intuition across physical networking, WAN/backbone infrastructure, colocation environments, cloud interconnects, cross‑connects, optics, cabling, routing, and operational readiness.
• Have experience interfacing with and leading external vendors including engineering firms, equipment suppliers, and/or construction firms.
• Have expertise in designing and implementing simple, scalable processes that solve complex problems.
• Have experience managing complicated dependencies such as logistics and/or supply chains.

Compensation

$207K – $335K + Offers Equity

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage;

return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non‑public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.